The smiling face of President Obama on the middle plaque surely needs no introduction. On the left is Fannie Lou Hamer, the civil rights movement pioneer from Mississippi who famously described herself as being “sick and tired of being sick and tired”. Completing the trio on the right is Dr Mae Jemison, who has the honour of being the first African American woman to travel in space after completing a mission on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

In a short ceremony yesterday afternoon the plaques were officially unveiled by Richard LeBaron, Chargé d’Affaires at the United States Embassy in London, Simon Woolley, the national co-ordinator of Operation Black Vote in the UK, and Wally Brown CBE, former Principal of Liverpool Community College. You can see more photos of the ceremony in our US Black History Month Flickr photo set.

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